Sustainability is at the core of Verso's business

corporate governance.

Accountability and transparency aren't just sustainability goals; they are among Verso Paper Corp.'s founding principles and are at the core of all that we do. That's why we created a sustainability management structure that is fully integrated into our corporate governance.

Our Corporate Sustainability Committee includes all members of Verso’s senior management team. The committee develops corporate policy and directs strategy in all areas of corporate sustainability, from fiber procurement and product development to environmental, health and safety matters and social responsibility.

Our Vice President of Sustainability is responsible for overseeing sustainability performance across the company, as well as for communicating with stakeholders (including customers, government and non-governmental organizations) and for reporting sustainability progress. Our operational management is responsible for day-to-day sustainability performance and compliance at the mill level. We also have cross-functional employee sustainability teams in the areas of EHS, fiber procurement, product stewardship, social responsibility and accountability/ transparency that review and make recommendations for improvement on sustainability policies and objectives, and track performance in their respective areas.

Our environmental management system was independently audited and is certified to the ISO 14001:2004 environmental management system standard.  Our safety management system is based on the goals and objectives of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program.

We use a variety of checks and balances to hold ourselves accountable and identify areas for continuous safety and environmental performance improvement, including annual self-audits and management reviews of our safety and environmental management systems (EMS). These are augmented by an annual ISO 14001:2004 independent audit of our EMS and comprehensive, independently managed environmental compliance audits. We conduct environmental compliance audits every three years for our pulp and paper mills and every four years for other non-administrative operations to help assure our compliance with all applicable federal, state and local environmental regulatory requirements, permits and compliance plans.

As a requirement of our membership in the Voluntary Protection Program, OSHA officials generally visit our participating mills every three years to assess and verify compliance with regulatory requirements, as well as the performance of our management systems to prevent injuries. These assessments are augmented by annual Key Element Surveys in which mill personnel review safety compliance and management system performance.

Being Transparent to Our Stakeholders
Verso is committed to being accountable and transparent in all that we do. This means sharing information on our company policies, programs and special initiatives, and regularly evaluating and reporting progress toward our sustainability goals. We use a number of tools to help us do this: